$AU1.7 million for speech-text startup

Swag of inventions in $AU10 million handout round

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Australian speech–to-text streaming technology Ai-Live has been awarded a $AU1.7 million dollar government development grant to accelerate global commercialisation of its platform.

The platform is targeted at the disability sector particularly for education and employment applications. Ai-Live has conducted pilot studies in New South Wales and Victorian schools.

The Sydney based developer allows live speech to be streamed as text in seconds to any web-enabled device such as iPads, tablets or laptops. The platform works by relaying live audio to a remote trained operator who re-speaks, with punctuation, into special speech recognition software in real time.

The funding, facilitated through the Commercialisation Australia fund, will be used to deliver fully scalable systems to achieve sales in multi-user sites.

Commercialisation Australia is an Australian Government program that assists Australian innovators turn their inventions into marketable products and services.

The program has already helped 177 innovators with funding of $AU71.2 million over the last two years.

Ai-Live was one of 23 Australian inventions that received a portion of $10 million through the latest round of the Commercialisation Australia funding program.

"We need more Australian inventions making it out of the laboratory and into the marketplace," Innovation Minister Senator Kim Carr said

The inventions that were awarded funding include five health-related projects that could manage chronic stress, create drugs with fewer side effects, produce healthier foods, combat hearing loss and enhance micro-scale blood storage.

Seven information and communications technology projects also secured support, including a mobile phone application that operates like a hotel key to open rooms. ®